814 Civilians Killed in July 2017 Including 225 At the Hands of the International Coalition Forces

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

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The Syrian Network for Human Rights, founded in June 2011, is a non-governmental, non-profit independent organization that is a primary source for the United Nations on all death toll-related statistics in Syria

Contents I. Introduction and Methodology II. Details III. Conclusions and Recommendations

I. Introduction and Methodology The report includes only the death toll of civilians that were killed by the main seven influential parties in Syria: • Syrian regime forces (army, Security, local militias, Shiite foreign militias) • Russian forces • Self-management forces (consisting primarily of the Democratic Union Party forces, a branch for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) • Extremist Islamic groups • Armed opposition factions • International coalition forces • Other parties The fourth round of negotiations was held in Astana city, Kazakhstan’s capital, on 3 and 4 of May 2017. Russian, Turkish, and Iranian representatives attended as the sponsoring states of Ankara Ceasefire Agreement. The three states agreed on establishing four de-escalation zones, wherein the agreement is to commence on May 6, 2017. The agreement outlined four major areas for the de-escalation – Idlib governorate and the surrounding areas (parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia governorates), northern Homs governorate, Eastern Ghouta, and parts of Daraa and al Quneitra governorates in the southern parts of Syria. It was provided that an expert committee would accurately assign the borders of said zones at a later date. The agreement provided for a cessation of combat operations, passage of humanitarian aids, and for IDPs to go back to their areas. Since the agreement went into effect, these areas saw a relatively noticeable and good decrease in killing rates compared with the previous months since March 2011.

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Following an extensive round of talks between Russia, USA, and Jordan that commenced in May 2017 in Amman, Jordan’s capital, the American and Russian presidents announced, on the sidelines of the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg, that a ceasefire agreement has been reached in southwestern Syria – Daraa, Quneitra, and Suwayda governorates. The agreement went into force at 12:00 on Sunday July 9, 2017, and provided for the passage of humanitarian aids in addition to a ceasefire between the conflicting parties (Syrian regime forces and their allies on one side, and armed opposition factions on the other side). Also, the agreement specifies that maintaining security in this region is the Russian forces’ responsibility in coordination with the Americans and Jordanians. We noticed that these agreements reflected on the living aspects of the civilians who live in the areas that were included in the agreement, as patients were able to go to hospitals and medical points, and many children went back to school after their families prevented them out of fear for their lives in light of the repeated bombing that targeted schools, as well as hospitals. Markets became more active, and many infrastructure services were restored thanks to a number of maintenance campaigns. Nonetheless, breaches didn’t stop, mainly by the Syrian regime, who is seemingly the party that would be most affected should the ceasefire go on, and in particular extrajudicial killing crimes and, more horrendously, deaths due to torture. This strongly asserts that there is a ceasefire of some sort on the table, but the crimes that the international community -especially the sponsoring parties- won’t see are still going on as nothing had happened. We haven’t seen a significant drop in civilian death numbers compared with last June, while we recorded that the percentage of children and women victims increased by 11% in comparison with last month, 52% in July and 41% in June, which suggests that the parties to the conflict are deliberately targeting civilians. We recorded a 80% drop in civilian killings at the hands of the Syrian regime in July in the governorates that were included in South Syria Agreement, compared with last month, as the agreement went into effect in July. We, at SNHR, hope that the de-escalation zones agreements see a good commitment, so it becomes a stronger foundation on which a political process would be built that would fulfil justice for the victims, and hold all the perpetrators accountable for their violations; most pressingly the party that was primarily responsible for the dire situation that Syria have come into: the current ruling regime who has perpetrated roughly 90% of all violations against the Syrian people.

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Methodology The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) is an independent human rights organization that is not affiliate of any political or partisan side. SNHR works on documenting human rights violations by the seven main parties in Syria. We have been able to document the civilian victims who are being killed by the parties to the conflict to a great extent, whereas armed victims are divided into two categories: Victims from the armed opposition: We face additional difficulties as many of those victims are killed on battlefronts and not inside cities. Also, we aren’t able to obtain details such as names, pictures and other important details on account of the armed opposition forces’ unwillingness to reveal such information for security concerns among other reasons. Therefore, the actual number of victims is much greater than what is being recorded. Victims from Syrian regime forces and ISIS: It is almost impossible to access information about this kind of victims and the margin of error is considerably higher due to the lack of any applicable methodology in this type of documentation. The Syrian government and ISIS don’t publish, reveal, or record their victims. From our perspective, the statistics published by some groups on this category of victims are fictitious and are not based on any actual data. Therefore, we are only going to include civilian victims who were killed by all parties and compare them Please see SNHR methodology in documenting victims:

II. Details A. Civilian death toll in 2017 SNHR has documented the killing of 6,431 civilians at the hands of parties to the conflict in Syria from the beginning of 2017 until August. Distribution of Civilian Deaths in Syria since the Beginning of 2017 1134 1014 781

January

3

876

February

964 848

March

April

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May

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June

814

July

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B. Death toll in July 2017 248

225

119

96 91

59

44

23 5

Syrian Regime Forces International Coalition Forces

Other Parties

Extremist Islamic Groups

Self-Management Forces

Russian Forces

Armed Opposition Factions

Fateh Al Sham Front ISIS

SNHR has documented the killing of 814 civilians in the month of July 2017. Death toll is distributed by the parties to the conflict as follows: A. Syrian regime forces (army, security, local militias, Shiite foreign militias) SNHR documented the killing of 248 civilians at the hands of Syrian regime forces, including 62 children (two children are killed every day on average) and 33 women (adult female). Also, among the victims were 18 civilians who died due to torture. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: Syrian regime forces

76 62

62

33

248

18

62

119

23

20

20

17

15

12 3

33 18

Children

4

Damascus and Deir Ez-Zour its suburbs

Women (Adult Female)

‫أطفال‬

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

Hama

Raqqa

Idlib

Daraa

Aleppo

Homs

Quneitra

Due to Torture

‫بسبب التعذيب‬

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B. Russian forces We recorded the killing of 44 civilians, including nine children and 10 women, in bombardment operations we believe were Russian. The death is distributed across governorates as follows: Raqqa: 28 Damascus and its suburbs: 16 Russian forces

9

119

44

10

62

33 18

Children

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

Due to Torture

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

C. Self-Management forces (Consisting primarily of the Democratic Union Party – a branch for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) Killed 59 civilians, including 11 children and nine women. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: Raqqa: 43, Aleppo: 8, Homs: 4, Deir Ez-Zour: 2, Hasaka: 2 43

Self-Management forces

11 9 59

119

62

33

8 4

18

Children

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

5

Due Raqqa to Torture

Aleppo

Homs

2

2

Deir Ez-Zour

Hasaka

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

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D. Extremist Islamic groups: killed 96 civilians, including 25 children and 11 women, as follows: • ISIS (self-proclaimed the Islamic State): killed 91 civilians, including 24 children and 11 women. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: ISIS

43

24

119

91

32

11

62

33

8

18

Children

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

Raqqa Due to Torture

Deir Ez-Zour

Aleppo

4

3

Homs

Hasaka

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

• Fateh al Sham Front (formerly al Nussra Front): killed five civilians, including one child, in Idlib E. Armed opposition factions SNHR documented the killing of 23 civilians, including four children and six women. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: Armed opposition factions

10

4

23

119

6

62

4 3

33

3

2

18

Children

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

6

1

Due to Torture Daraa

Damascus suburbs

Damascus

Homs

Aleppo

Idlib

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

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F. International coalition forces We recorded the killing of 225 civilians, including 70 children and 45 women, in bombardments by international coalition forces warplanes. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: International coalition forces 10

70 62

119

225

45

4 3

33

3 2

18

Children

1

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

Raqqa

Due to Torture

Deir Ez-Zour

Hasaka

Aleppo

Aleppo

Homs

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

G. Other parties We documented the killing of 119 civilians, including 30 children and 12 women, at the hands of other parties. This category includes bombings that we couldn’t identify the group behind them, bullets of unknown sources, landmines of unknown sources, drowning, victims who died in fires, and the indiscriminate bombardment incidents by the Turkish land and air forces, and victims killed by Jordanian and Lebanese forces. Death toll is distributed across governorates as follows: Other parties 29

30 23

119

119

12

21

62 12

11

10

33 18

Children

Women (Adult Female) ‫أطفال‬

Aleppo

Due to Torture

Deir Ez-Zour

Idlib

Raqqa

Homs

Hama

)‫سيدات(أنثى بالغة‬

We would like to note that this what we were able to document and verify with full names, place, and time through our members who are spread across Syria. It also should be noted that there are many cases that we couldn’t access and document especially in the event of massacres where towns are villages are enclosed and communication is cut off which is what the Syrian government repeatedly does every time. This suggests that the actual number of civilian deaths is greater. All of this is because the Syrian government bans any human rights organization from working on its grounds. 7

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III. Conclusions and Recommendations 1- SNHR affirms that the Syrian-Russian alliance forces have violated the rules of international human rights law which guarantee the right to life. Evidences and proofs, according to hundreds of eyewitnesses’ testimonies, indicate that 90% at least of the widespread and single attacks were directed against civilians and civilian facilities. All of this discredits the Syrian government’s claims that they are fighting “Al-Qaeda and terrorists” SNHR notes that these incidents of killing constitute crimes against humanity where most of these cases involved the element of widespread or systematic attack against a group of civilian residents. 2- Kurdish Self-management forces have conducted extrajudicial killings that constitute war crimes. 3- Extremist Islamic groups have conducted extrajudicial killings as well that constitute war crimes. 4- Some of the armed opposition factions have conducted extrajudicial killings that constitute war crimes. 5- International coalition forces have conducted extrajudicial killings that constitute war crimes. Condemnation and liability Every internationally unlawful act committed by the state will entail a legal responsibility on that state. Equally, the customary international law states that the state is responsible for all the acts committed by the members of its security and military forces. Consequently, the state is responsible for the unlawful acts, including crimes against humanity, that have been perpetrated by the members of its military and security forces. Additionally, the Russian regime and all Shiite militias as well as ISIS are all foreign parties who were effectively involved in acts of killings and are all responsible legally and judicially in addition to the funders and supporters of the Syrian regime that is perpetrating massacres systemically and ceaselessly on a daily basis.

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Recommendations The Security Council • The Security Council must take additional steps as it has been a year since Resolution 2139 was adopted and no pledges to stop the indiscriminate bombing, which causes daily destruction and killing, have been made. • Apply pressure on the states that support Syrian regime forces such as Russia, Iran, and Lebanon in order to stop the weaponry and expertise supply for Syrian regime forces as it has been proven that Syrian regime forces have been involved in crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as states and individuals who are supplying extremist groups, the Democratic Union Party, and some of the armed opposition factions. • The Syrian case must be referred to the International Criminal Court and all those who are responsible must be held accountable. • Instill security and peace in Syria and implement the principle of Responsibility to Protect in order to save the Syrians’ lives, history, and culture, from being destroyed, stolen, and ruined.

Acknowledgment and Condolences We gratefully thank all the families and local activists who majorly enriched this report with their contribution.

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